Halo Wars: The Battle For Eden
by IFreeman
Summary: For four long years, the marines of the UNSC warship Spirit of Fire have been locked in conflict with the Covenant on the Colony World of Eden. When the future looks grim for the UNSC, a hero will make the greatest sacrifice and save the world forever....
1. Industrial Wasteland

HALO WARS

_**The Battle of Eden**_

Hey there. This is my first fanfic and I'm pretty new to this sort of thing, but here's my best shot. This is just raw story, no editing has been done yet. Srry for any typos, as i kinda suck at editing my own work, and any reviews or critisism is totally welcome. Remember, this is a work in progress, and this is based on an upcoming video game, Halo Wars (kind of obvious), so, there's a lot more coming down the line. By the way, there's not much dialogue in the first part, something i need to fix, and also, just becuase this thing has the name HALO WARS and SPIRIT OF FIRE attached to it, that doesn't mean it takes place on Harvest ( NOT Harvest--EDEN!) Thanks, everyone.

August 14th, 2535

Outer Colony World Eden, Capital City Constantinople

21:08 Hours

Three heavily armed and armoured Pelican dropships, all full to bursting with loads of marines destined for the war-torn planet's surface, streaked through the lower atmosphere of Eden. Bursts of plasma flak and volleys of laser fire crisscrossed all around the trio of ships as they descended into the smoky skyline of Eden's capital city, Constantinople. Once a glorious sprawling industrial centre, the city had been reduced to nothing but a flaming rubble pile that the UNSC had fought in and around and in for four long years. Years of struggle, chaos, and battle against the never-ending wave of the alien Covenant warriors that still plagued the city. Thousands of marines had given their lives to retake the planet, and still the war dragged on.

The lead Pelican fired off a dozen rockets at the clearing between the smoking buildings in which they were supposed the land, and the courtyard erupted in several fiery explosions, scattering the few Covenant troops that were set up there. Dust flew up and blew in all directions as the Pelicans lowered into position and landed with heavy thuds, their landing gear locking into position as the doors opened and ninety marines poured out, yanking the charging levers of their weapons and scanning the area for possible hostiles. The sounds of battle filled the air and the dark sky was lit with the smoky fires of war and AA fire from hundreds of guns.

A Warthog roared past their position, followed by three more. The M12 Light Reconnaissance Vehicle -nicknamed 'Warthog' by the men and women who operated the - was a very powerful and well armoured combat jeep that was a staple of most UNSC ground forces. Boasting either an M41 LAAG machine gun or an M61 gauss cannon bolted to the back of the vehicle, it was a very important asset to all UNSC armies.

The last Warthog in line looked very badly damaged, covered in plasma scorches, dragging a burnt rear fender along the broken permacrete roadway and overloaded with several wounded soldiers. When the LRVs had passed, the marines spotted movement in the rubble strewn jungle of broken buildings off to the right. They spun and prepared to gun down whatever Covenant monstrosity was coming at them, but instead, several soot-covered marines clambered out of the wreckage and waved their assault rifles in greeting. Other Warthogs roared into sight to cover the newly arrived marines, M41 LAAG guns blasting away at the high level Covenant bombers and Banshee attack fighters high up in the dark sky.

The newly arrived soldiers lowered their weapons and hustled across the field of permacrete as the Pelicans lifted off again, sidestepping bodies, discarded weapons and little piles of flaming wreckage. A flight of Banshees screamed overhead above the skeletons of piping stations and ruined industrial buildings, firing off balls of white-hot plasma at two buildings to their east, and every marine in the company threw themselves flat to avoid the falling debris and plasma raining down from the sky. The marines who had greeted them hadn't even flinched, but they still turned and ran as the Warthogs revved their engines and went after the Banshees, racing after the purple war machines like dogs trying to catch flies.

The new marines scattered and scrambled for cover, assault rifles and other weapons blazing wildly at the firelit darkness above, and they dove into the cover of the crumbling industrial buildings. More Banshees dive-bombed their positions and explosions of melted permacrete, metal and plasma blasted the debris filled buildings.

Private Reese Freeman of the 21st Infantry rolled behind a broken wall just as a plasma shot detonated on the ground right where his head would have been a second before. He gingerly looked up over the wall and saw even more Banshees flying overhead, guarding a two pronged, ball turreted Spirit Dropship that was also spewing out fire at the marines below. He took careful shots at the flying machines, making sure not to attract too much attention, because those heavy defensive guns didn't look too friendly. Already, some of the new marines who had been too slow to make it to the buildings were falling to the twin lines of plasma marching around the courtyard.

Reese was an earthborn, and had had a very illustrious career in the UNSC military, especially in the war with the Covenant. He had seen a hundred skirmishes against the ferocious aliens, and had once been promoted to Major for his actions of bravery and courage in the face of impossible odds. Reese had been at Harvest, at Jericho V, and dozens of other worlds coming under attack from the ever encroaching Covenant fleets, and he had seen all there was to see of war that was tearing humanity apart. It was thanks to him and his actions as a commander that the UNSC still had control of over twenty strongholds in the outer colonies. Not bad for a man in his early thirties. But one key event in his life had changed everything.

It had been on Coral, when the UNSC was retreating after making a terrible strategic mistake that had cost them the world. Scattered marine groups were everywhere, all desperately trying to make it back to the capital city to escape the wave of Covenant warriors and ships that were sweeping the planet, and Reese's company had turned back to rescue a nearby group of marines trapped in a nearby town - in direct defiance of orders from Command. Reese's marines had taken a few losses, but that was nothing compared to the number of marines they had saved. When they had arrived at the city and taken a space elevator to a waiting transport ship, Reese had been taken into custody, court martialed and busted down to Private. And now here he was, in the middle of a chaotic battle that had raged for years, on a backwater but strategically important world called Eden.

As soon as the dropship and its escorts had passed, Reese jumped up and followed his marines into the destroyed complex. He had been ordered to meet up with a Captain Charlie Allan, who was in command of the mess in this part of the city. His position was anybody's guess, but it was Reese's job to find him and relieve him and his company. He had no idea where his squad was. North, Piper, Scorch and Cookie were probably all lost too in this maze of a complex. No matter. His mission was to find Allan, and his squad would have to wait until Allan was back behind friendly lines.

A twisting permacrete tunnel lined with long, dented piping and cracked wall plating stretched out before him. Many other marines were making their way down the hallway, some of the new soldiers already injured. Explosions rocked the narrow passage, shaking debris and from the crumbling ceiling. The few lights that had been erected to give off some light for the marines flickered and fizzed as they were jostled around by the forceful blasts, and the marines stumbled against the walls in their confusion. Reese moved carefully down the hall, listening to the sounds of battle outside and staying away from the walls, if something happened to come crashing through and kill him.

Ahead, there seemed to be some sort of hold up, but as he got closer, Reese saw that part of the hallway had collapsed to reveal a fierce firefight outside. A low, narrow wall was all that remained of the right side of the twisting hall, and a line of marines was crouched behind it, trading fire with the Covenant outside in the street to cover the marines moving through behind them.

Reese moved forwards again, and hearing someone yell, "Go, GO, GO!!" he charged through the opening. Marines poured out behind him and plasma streaked past him from every direction. Somebody was hit and the poor man was sent spinning to the ground, clawing at the small section of his face that was untouched by plasma. Others were blown backwards against the walls as more direct hits were scored, and marines fell to the concrete floor everywhere as the lack of good cover began to take its toll.

Reese charged into the fray and added his firepower to the other marines', throwing himself down behind the ruined wall and emptying his clip into the nearest Elite. The alien's personal energy shield sputtered and disappeared, and the last few bullets tore into the thing's body, sending gouts of purple blood out onto the road.

The tall, regal-looking Elite collapsed in a bloody heap, but five more aliens charged forwards to take its place. Small, chattering Grunts hurled bright blue grenades and peppered the marines with fire and the Elites stalked forwards, hosing the marines down further with even more plasma. Their cover was getting blown away fast, and there were too many aliens approaching to gun down fast enough. Just as the first Elite was powering up its energy sword for some close-combat work, a Warthog roared past the opening, swerving right over the group of Covenant and spewing out bloody chunks on the other side. The Covenant that had been lucky enough to avoid the rolling war machine were quickly gunned down with a single sweep of the M41 LAAG, and the Warthog sped off into the distance to deal with the next group of Covenant, power-sliding past wreckage and swerving under broken pedestrian skyways. Just as he got up and scrambled forwards back into the tunnel, Reese saw a Hunter ahead – an incredibly strong, twelve foot tall chunk of armour held together by millions of individual worm things – smash the hood of the Warthog inwards with its giant shield, causing the LRV to detonate in a massive explosion and fly high into the air to smash against the overhead piping. Seconds later, a rocket streaked out of nowhere and blasted the Hunter to bloody chunks of orange meat.

Reese raced back into the tunnel, skittering past several badly injured marines lying against the wall and reloading his MA5B assault rifle. Plasma impacted against the walls and small sections fell in, bubbling and melting against the floor like eggs frying on the sidewalk. Explosion after explosion rocked the streets and threw the marines around inside. Beside Reese, one marine was shot in the back of the head by another, who had stumbled and fell on his rifle, and he was subsequently shot as well as the rifle discharged again and blew his entire skullcap off, spraying the wall with his blood. The lights went on and off, dust streamed down from the cracked and pockmarked ceiling, and marines moved forward.

Light could be seen at the end of the hall, and the marines drove towards it. Reese barely missed being hit by a sudden burst of plasma that speared right through the tunnel and disappeared through the other side, though three other marines weren't so lucky. Their smoking corpses dropped like rocks, but the other marines didn't even give them a second glance.

Reese and the other marines emerged into a massive courtyard lined with machinery and industrial buildings where the largest firefight Reese had ever seen was being fought. An incredible display of tracer rounds, rockets and plasma balls crisscrossed the huge open space, making it difficult to lift a finger here without being prepared to lose it. Covenant filled the buildings across the courtyard from the UNSC, and a terrific amount of plasma was fired out through the windows and openings. The top of the giant clearing was cut into sections by piping that stretched between the buildings, and a large pedestrian bridge extended across the vast open space, also filled with alien warriors. Marines were everywhere, barking orders, firing endlessly, but the screams from the terrible wounds cut through the noise most of all. There had to be at least four hundred marines entrenched in this area; behind walls, machinery, fallen pipes and lowered areas, and at least a third of those soldiers were injured.

Several M808B Heavy Scorpion tanks rested at the UNSC end of the courtyard, and they were busy turning the Covenant lines into a moonscape. Machine gun nests had been set up everywhere and they were pouring fire into the alien occupied buildings and lowered sections of permacrete that also acted as good trenches for the aliens. This firefight looked like it had been dragging on for quite a while, with the body and casualty count rising quickly on both sides, and many of the buildings here didn't look like they were going to last long with this sustained barrage of bullets and explosions. Several burnt out vehicles and crumpled corpses littered the center of the heavily pockmarked and cratered middle of the courtyard, evidence of at least a few failed frontal charges on the enemy.

Reese took cover behind a civilian car beside a smoldering Elite corpse, not even bothering to move the stinking body away from him. They were going to be here for a long time if it continued to play out as a stalemate, there was still his squad to look for, and already he was down to only four magazines. But he also needed to find Allan, and after, he could worry about his own problems. More of his own marines were coming out of the rubble behind him, spreading out and giving the battle weary soldiers that had been here for hours a break. It was time to get to work.

End of Part 1


	2. Once More Unto The Breach

PART 2

PART 2

Reese moved quickly through the maze of crumbling buildings, keeping low to avoid the worst of the incoming fire. Bullet holes and plasma scorching covered almost every surface, debris was strewn in every corner and the roar of hundreds of small arms weapons and heavy artillery fire was almost too much to bear. Every few seconds, another massive explosion sent everyone stumbling against the walls and scrambling for cover as debris rained from the sky. It looked like the UNSC had made quite a push to take this forward position. Too bad a huge battle had started when the Covenant had chosen this exact same spot to make _their _push forwards. With a little more time, the marines could have had this area locked down and defended, and none of this would be happening.

So far, none of the marines he had met looked anything like Captain Allan. Nothing even close to a positive ID on the man. Most marines were soot covered and drenched in their own sweat, despite the light snow that had started to fall. _Snow…….._

Eight Covenant battlecruisers orbited the planet, providing heavy support for the troops on the surface in the form of plasma glassing. The cruisers targeted an area with their heavy cannons and burned it until everything on the surface had been melted down to nothing but a super-hardened glassy field. This form of heavy ordnance wreaked havoc on the planet's bio and ecosphere, screwing with the atmosphere and causing a form of nuclear winter.

This snow swirled and flew around, carried by the wind and smoke as Reese crawled under a collapsed section of bridge that had come crashing through the roof of a pumping station.

"KEEP FIRING!!" someone was roaring. Reese rolled out from under the slab of permacrete to see a man with squinting bright blue eyes and greying hair in a tattered officer's uniform firing an M6D heavy magnum sidearm in the general direction of the Covenant, barking orders as he did so. He carried with him an air of confidence and respect, something that was in short supply here. This had to be the Captain. Marines had formed a protective cordon around him and were struggling to keep him defended.

"Sir, are you Captain Allan?" asked Reese, crouching beside the large man. The captain got low as well and fixed Reese with his bright gaze. Plasma exploded all around them and tore up the permacrete flooring, sending debris, smoke, and marines flying everywhere.

"That I am, son. Are you my reinforcements?"

Reese pulled out a datapad and nodded. "We've come to relieve you. Your new assignment is on here."

The Captain took the datapad and stared at for a few seconds, blue eyes flitting back and forth.

He shook his head. "I can't do this. I can't leave my boys."

"I'm sorry sir. Those are both your orders and mine. My company relieves you, one of our Lieutenants takes charge, and you fall back to the safe zone to be debriefed."

"No. I stay here." The captain's noble face hardened. "Those bastards at Command are not taking my men away from me. I stay with them, and as your ranking officer, you are now under my command." Said the Captain. He sounded like the kind of guy who was used to disobeying orders. He and Reese would get along just fine.

"What's your name, son?" asked the Captain.

Suddenly, a mortar shell backfired and exploded on the other side of the wall, blowing it all inwards. Reese and the captain were sent flying, and before he knew it, Reese felt himself being dragged behind a car.

Coughing and reaching for his MA5B, Reese answered, "Majo- I mean, _Private_ Reese Freeman, 21st Infantry, Spirit Of Fire."

"That's my vessel, Spirit of Fire. You must be part of those replacement companies we were getting………. Wait. _Reese Freeman_? You're not _the _Reese Freeman, are you? Harvest, Jericho, Coral, the works?" asked the Captain, narrow eyes widening.

"That's me. I got busted all the way down to Private on Coral. I got court martialled by the spooks at ONI and the verdict was guilty. The choice was criminal death or re-entry into the Marines for twenty years as a Private. You can guess what I picked."

"Jeez, that's bad. I feel like I should be saluting you, not the other way around. I have to say, you didn't look much like a Private."

"No. I don't feel like one, either." Agreed Reese. "I still think of these marines as my own. A lot of them were with me on Coral. Some still even call me Major."

The Captain smiled. "Well, if that's the case, as long as I'm around, you're not a grunt. How'd you like to command a company of ODSTs?"

Reese widened his eyes. "ODSTs, sir? Really. How many do you have here?"

The ODSTs (Orbital Drop Shock Troops) were the deadliest marines alive, second only to the legendary Spartans. An all volunteer corps, they were relatively few in number compared to the bulk of the soldiers forces in the UNSC, but one ODST soldier was enough to equal the combat prowess of ten marines. They were commonly dropped on top of enemies from orbit in special EVU drop pods, and it took a special kind of crazy to join up. They were always outnumbered and outgunned by enemies, but as every ODST would say to you, "We're ODSTs! We're meant to be surrounded!"

The Captain shut his eyes against a bright explosion and then said, "We dropped about five hundred in all, but most are spread out all over the city. The first Pelicans really messed up the drop zones badly, so now most of the ODST forces are acting as rapid-response forces. Most are cut off from each other and surrounded, so it'll be hard to find them all in this mess of a city. You can take command of the ones I have here, about a platoon's worth, and whenever you find some more, add them to your force." Said the Captain. "Oh yeah, don't call me sir. Makes me want to kick those bastards at ONI in the nuts."

"Right sir- I, I mean, um, Captain…" said Reese, unsure what to call the man.

"Call me Allan, son. You can move out whenever you want to. I'll get the ODST commander on the horn; tell him that you're in charge. Grab some ammo from one of our caches, and then you're on your way. I'll give you some _requests_ over the radio about what to do first. Nothing's an order though. Kill these Covenant bastards any way you see fit."

"Thanks, um, _Allan._ I'll get right on it." Said Reese, grabbing his MA5 and rolling our from behind the car. All of a sudden, a plasma mortar streaked through the massive hole in the front wall of the building and blasted the vehicle, almost flipping it on top of the Captain. He was only saved by Reese's quick action, and with their combined strength, Allan and Reese slammed the rusted piece of machinery back down. The side facing the Covenant was nothing but a melted heap of molten steel, sliding off the destroyed frame of the car and hardening on the ground.

Reese winced, and after a wave to the Captain, he scrambled across the cratered floor to the other end of building, past dying marines, pools of blood, carpets of golden shell casings, dropped magazines, and the stench of death. He found an ammo crate beside a partially demolished wall section and tried to get it open, but the lid wouldn't budge. He realized that it had been melted to the box, so Reese drew his sidearm and shot the corners of the crate. The plasteel box fell apart, sending clips, rocket ammo and MG bullets all over the floor.

Reese took a few magazines for his MA5 and pistol, grabbed some extra grenades, and then got out of the way fast as a horde of ammo starved marines rushed in. In seconds, the scorched ammo box was empty.

More marines rushed through a hole in the wall, and Reese went out the same way they had come in.

His radio crackled. "Reese? You there, Major?"

"Roger that, I'm looking for the ODSTs now."

"I just wanted to let you know that the ODST platoon just moved out. They're heading through the underground section of one of the piping stations to try and flank the enemy. If you want catch up to them, you'd better move fast. Get to the east piping station and head underground there." Said the Captain.

"Copy that. Heading out now." Said Reese.

The Comm crackled and almost dropped out, but the Captain had time to say, "I'll try to keep you updated as you go, but I've got a lot of other commanders who need orders as well. Good luck, Reese."

"Thanks, Captain." Said Reese, and he rushed through a collapsed section of a Habs building, plasma exploding all around him.

Firing as he went, Reese sprinted through the remaining buildings to the corner of the courtyard, where one of the Scorpions belched smoke and fired off explosive rounds into the Covenant lines. He sidestepped the Scorpion and plunged down into a lowered section of the courtyard corner where the marines had set up a ramshackle pillbox-like trench. He nearly slipped on the carpets of shell casings as he moved past roaring machine guns, marines with rocket launchers and Spartan lasers, and a Warthog that had fallen through the cloth top and exploded towards the end of the trench-like lowered section – bringing down a ton of debris and rubble with it.

With the flaming Warthog blocking the exit to the dugout, Reese had to crawl through a narrow underground service accessway to get into the piping station, a building that had almost reached the collapsing point. A few marines were in here, busy blocking off the doors to other buildings in case the Covenant tried to get through and flank the UNSC, just like what the ODSTs were on their way to do now.

Something exploded outside, one noise adding to the ongoing roar of combat, and a section of pipe covered wall fell in. When the dust cleared, a squad of marines rushed through the accessway and set up an MG in the perfectly positioned spot for a good crossfire to root out more aliens.

Reese found a shotgun on the floor next to the stairs. The weapon would work well in the underground if there were any Covies down there, so he decided to stick his assault rifle to his back - the body armour magnetizing and clamping onto the MA5 - and he picked up the heavy pump action shotgun and fed some shells into the reload opening. Grabbing the rest of the red and white shells strewn around, Reese took the stairs down three flights, turning on the small headlight mounted on his helmet.

The underground section of the piping station was dark and quiet, except for the occasional faint BOOM as another mortar or tank shell went off above. Dust fell from the ceiling and hung mysteriously in the air as he made his way slowly forward, shotgun held out before him, light sweeping the darkened tunnel ahead. He could see a faint light coming from the room ahead, probably through some sort of door, but there could be anything between him and the light.

Suddenly, he saw the air in front of him shimmer, a huge form appeared in the dark, and a bright blue energy sword activated. Reese's split second decision saved his life. Pumping the shotgun, he put a single round into the stomach of the previously cloaked Elite, which took down the alien's shield. The Elite lunged forwards with lighting speed, swinging with the deadly energy sword, but Reese pumped and fired again, blowing the Covenant warrior's insides out all over the ODST soldier standing behind the Elite, who whacked it over the head with an MA5 and put a burst into the falling body to finish it off. Reese jumped aside to avoid the falling sword, which hit the floor and started to burn through the permacrete before it shut off automatically and disintegrated.

"Are you Major Freeman?" asked the dark armoured ODST soldier, lowering his MA5.

"_Private _Freeman." Said Reese.

"Well, Reese, from what I remember, you were a Major, weren't you? What happened?" said the man, stepping into Reese's helmet light, and raising the visor of his full head helmet. The deep voice had already given it away. It was Kane.

"_Kane_?! You joined the ODSTs? When? Where?" exclaimed Reese.

Reese and Kane Carlos had been best friends ever since Harvest, when they had left their farming families and joined the Colonial Militia to defend the planet and had met the Covenant for the first time. They had survived the Contact Harvest encounter and escaped the world with Johnson and Jenkins and everyone else, and then had come back a year later to take the planet back from the newly arrived aliens. It had taken them five years to fight the Covenant forces off, and by then, the Covenant War was in full swing. In 2525 human space encompassed nearly 800 worlds throughout the Orion arm of the Milky Way, and the Covenant Fleets were beginning a massive attack on the first Outer Colony Worlds. Reese and Kane had been separated after that first conflict on Harvest, and they hadn't seen each other for nearly ten years, until now, on Eden.

"Listen, we'd better make this quick." Said Kane, taking out a pair of goggles and handing them to Reese. "Gamma ray vision glasses. Lets us see those cloaked Elite bastards before they hit us. Kind of evens the odds a bit, cause in this darkness, they can't see us either. Turn off that headlight, you won't need it."

"Right." Said Reese, pulling on the goggles and flicking off the headlight. The first thing he saw through the green night-vision glow was a large, high ceilinged room full of tall computer servers, and dead marines carpeted the floor. That explained the smell of blood. At the end of the space open, a large blast door stood half open, forced off its hinges by an explosion, and faint light shone through. About twenty ODSTs had positions along the walls, weapons held at the ready, and a large pile of dead aliens stank in front of the large door. Elites, Grunts, Jackals, even a Hunter laid dead among the marines, all riddled with bullets. Not one ODST uniform could be seen among the bodies.

Kane motioned to the wall. "Come on, I'll tell you the story before we head out again. I doubt they'll be sending any more Covies down this way."

Both of them picked their way through the bodies, occasionally picking up a spare clip or grenade here and there, but before long, both of them were sitting against the metal plated wall amongst the other ODSTs and broken glass strewn all over the floor.

"Remember when we were on Harvest, and they made you, Jenkins and Johnson Staff Sergeants?" asked Kane.

"Yeah. We stuck together until Paris V, when Johnson got plasma radiation and went to the hospital for six months. Jenkins went off to Jericho, and they sent me to the Spirit Of Fire." Said Reese. "When did you join the ODSTs?"

"Well, they offered the rest of the surviving Harvest militia, us guys who first fought the Covies, the chance to join the ODSTs for our work on Harvest. Everyone accepted, naturally. We all got shipped off to Admiral Cole's assault fleet, and they shifted us around as they tried to intercept the Covenant. I think that I'm one of the last ODSTs in that fleet. We got transferred to the Spirit Of Fire about a month ago, when the call for more troops went out."

"Wow. Small universe, eh?"

"Yeah. Wait- oh, shi-"

Kane motioned to the ODSTs across the wide room, and they nodded, raising their rifles.

"What?" asked Reese, oblivious to the small shadow approaching in the light pooling in front of the door.

Kane shut his visor and held a finger to his mouth. Quiet…..

A lone Grunt wandered into the room, pink needler gun held out cautiously in front of it, and the space instantly smelled like methane. Reese noticed the large triangular breathing tank on its back, an apparatus that enabled the Grunt to breathe in a hostile oxygen environment. Too bad the damned tanks were so thin and exploded when shot. Made for some good fireworks.

The Grunt saw the pile of Covenant bodies and froze, backing slowly away from the mixed blood pool and turning to run – right into a burly ODST trooper.

The man whacked the grunt over the head with his BR55 battle rifle and kicked the unconscious body away from him. The rest of the platoon formed up by the large doorway and began to move in by twos, weapons at the ready. Someone leaned over and ripped off the little Grunt's methane filled facemask. Better to die this way than alert more Covenant to their presence.

Kane motioned to the door, and Reese nodded, picking up the shotgun and following the last of the black armoured ODSTs through the doorway. The elite marines appeared to be acting on their own without any sort of commanding officer, but he was fine with that. He wasn't technically qualified to be commanding such a force, but it was one hell of an honour to be serving with them.

This next hallway appeared to be pretty undamaged, at least compared to the rest of the underground. No pockmarks on the walls, no bodies, no signs of a fight. Reese followed Kane and the rest of the elite shock marines on to the drilling center, where a large staircase stood off to one side of a massive oil drill, currently defunct and needing repairs. They ascended the stairs quickly and quietly, heavy combat boots sounding more like living room slippers on the hard permacrete steps. Seemed like every damn thing in this city was made of the concrete-like substance…..

Light poured out of the next door, but it was an orangey, blazing light. More fire. Well, the battle certainly couldn't have been over yet, could it?

The ODSTs made their way around the catwalk running around the upper portion of the room and took positions by the door, preparing to storm through and breach. This had to be where they were supposed to flank the enemy. The sounds of battle could be heard clearly now, but they were different, softer sounds and thumps of weapons fire. Reese realized that they were hearing the Covenant's version of warfare, plasma rifles and needlers going off with quieter noises than the roaring human assault rifles and machine guns. The gabble of the Covenant's alien languages came wafting through the metal doorway, and Reese braced himself for another firefight.

With a single motion, five ODSTs ripped grenades off their combat vests and tossed them through the door. They waited for five seconds, heard a series of very loud bangs, and then they all charged through the door, weapons raised and blazing.

Reese went through the door and was instantly hit by a razor sharp needle shard from a Grunt's needler. Weapons fire streaked over his head as he fell, but an ODST reach down and pulled the pink needle out of his chest and hurled it away before it exploded with a pink dusty bang. That would have hurt like hell had it still been in his body.

He sat up and rolled behind the first cover he saw, a Grunt corpse on top of an Elite corpse. It would have to do.

Reese lifted the MA5 up over the shattered methane canister and fired down the grey passage in short bursts. The hallway was filled with so much smoke that most of the marine commandoes couldn't see past the barrels of their weapons, but the sustained barrage of bullets in a space as small as this was enough to keep the Covenant back, and even put a few of them down for good. Until they had the brains to send a Hunter into the fray.

The massive alien filled most of the corridor with its bulk, lumbering towards them through the smoke, blue armour plating contracting to make the spaces between the plates smaller to shield the thousand of tiny worms beneath. The Hunter held its huge metallic shield out in front of it and hid most of its body behind the thick plate of protection, with the arm mounted fuel rod cannon it wielded poking out from one side. Bullets pinged and ricocheted off the thick armour, apparently doing nothing to slow the monstrous alien down.

The end of the wide cannon began to glow, and Reese was already hunkering down behind his corpse cover when the lead ODST soldier bellowed, "EVERYONE DOWN!!"

The cannon fired a blob of superheated fluorescent green plasma down the corridor, passing right between the two columns of ODSTs where it exploded against the doorframe and shattered the walls around it with a massive blast of heat. ODSTs crashed down in heaps all around Reese as he curled up into a ball to ride out the heated air shock wave.

A moment later, a fully loaded SPNKR (Spanker) rocket launcher clattered down beside his right arm. Reese could not believe his luck.

Grabbing the heavy double-barrelled rocket tube, he dragged it up and mounted it on his shoulder, hearing the groans of the marines around him. The fuel rod cannon glowed again, and this time Reese knew that the Hunter would not miss.

He _was_ experienced with heavy weapons, but it was many years ago when he had last fired a rocket launcher. He didn't prepare properly for the kickback and compensated too early, sending the glowing brown missile spiralling downwards right at the glowing fuel rod gun.

The plasma cannon fired right as the rocket hit it, and the resulting explosion filled the whole corridor with superheated green fire. The walls shattered _and the entire hallway _in front of themplunged downwardsin a hail of rubble and flame. They were on the raised pedestrian walkway, and Reese had just destroyed the entire thing, killing at least a hundred Covenant soldiers in the process.

He raised his head and peered over the smouldering edge, seeing the flaming remains of the pedestrian bridge twenty five feet below and jerked back.

Bullets and plasma whizzed past the opening, and Reese turned back to see several ODST soldiers moving carefully towards him, the wind whipping at their torn uniforms. One of the dark visors was smashed and cracked, and Kane's left eye stared through the opening.

"Reese………"

But Kane didn't have time to say anything else, because the walkway gave another lurch and with a snap from the failing support arms, the remains of the walkway, carrying the ODSTs with it, plummeted downwards into the maelstrom of battle below.


End file.
